Mixing PC components with water coolant, pipes,
and fastenings? Sam Lewis goes in at the deep end
LIQUID COOLING MACHINES are the show
cars of the PC world—striking setups that
grab your attention. However, the benefits
of switching to a water-cooled system go
way beyond just the aesthetics—it can
cool down your build while performing at
a whisper-quiet volume. There are some
downsides to water cooling your build
though. It gets complex, so there’s more
planning involved than in your regular PC
build, but we’re going to show you that
anyone can give it a go.WATERCOOLING
12TH GEN
PRICES CORRECT AT THE TIME OF PRINTINGWATERCOOLING PC INGREDIENTS
PART RETAIL $ STREET $CPU Intel Core i9-12900K $589 $GPU Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 OC 10GB $850 $1,RAM 32GB (2x 16GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5200 $324 $Mobo MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY Gaming Motherboard ATX $480 $OS Storage 2TB XPG GAMMIX S70 M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD $329 $PSU NZXT C850 80+ Gold PSU $129 $Cooling Kit Corsair Hydro X Series iCUE XH303i RGB Pro Custom Cooling Kit $499 $Radiator Corsair Hydro X Series XR5 360mm Water Cooling Radiator Black $80 $90° Cooling Fittings Corsair Hydro X Series 90° Rotary Adapter Twin Pack x4 $108 $14mm OD Fitting Corsair Hydro X Series XF Hardline 14mm OD Fitting Four Pack x1 $27 $GPU Water
Cooling Block Corsair Hydro X Series XG7 RGB 30-SERIES STRIX GPU Water Block $169 $Case Reservoir
Pump/Combo Corsair Hydro X Series XD5 RGB Pump/Reservoir Combo $169 $Case Corsair iCUE 5000T RGB Tempered Glass Mid-Tower ATX $399 $Case lights Corsair iCUE LC100 Case Accent Lighting Panels - Starter Kit $129 $OS Windows 11 Home Key $20 $TOTAL $4,301 $4,
There are two types of water cooling
setups, soft tubing, and hard tubing—
the latter requiring heating and bending
pipes into position. Mixing fundamental
plumbing with PC building might sound
like the stuff of night terrors, but it’s not
that scary once you get into it. We’re going
straight into the deep end, but we’ll make
things easy to follow. Even I, a newbie
water cooler, was able to piece my first
system together with only a couple of days
and a little trial and error.The resulting system is packing some
sweet components, including Intel’s i9-
12900k for the brain, Asus’s ROG STRIX
GeForce RTX 3080 OC for the heart, and
Corsair’s liquid cooling kit for the veins.
The machine is housed in Corsair’s
striking 5000T case, with its RGB strips
matching our fans, cooler lighting, and
LC100 case lights from Corsair. Hopefully,
this colossal rig will run silently, with low
temperatures, and with no hiccups. Let’s
dive straight in.watercooling
16 MAXIMU MPC JUN 2022